Category Archives: Blog

Post-it Note Art

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We’ve been doing a 9-week series at my kid’s church called “Post-it Notes from God“. We’re using the theme to help kids hear messages from the Bible as if God were writing them a Post-it. Examples are “You Matter”, “I Have A Plan For You”, “Slow Down” and “Take Out The Trash”. It’s been a blast. Each week I’ve tried to take it to the next level by revealing a piece of Post-it Note art live during the service. It’s always a surprise and so far have all been well received. We just finished week 5 of the series and it’s been fun watching the pieces slowly take over the stage and set.

After the 9-week series is over we’ll be giving them away to children who can say the 66 books of the Persistent Bible. So far my daughter and one other young man have met that challenge and will get first and second pick! They decided to wait till the end before deciding in case I make something they like even more.

First in the series was (of course) Buzz Lightyear. He’ll be a properly listed Buzz eventually. I just need to get a better picture of him.

Week three was a little Hello Kitty.

Even Nathan my sound man has gotten into the action. He’s surprised me with a Creeper Face and a recreation of my 8-bit Character Icon that I recently set as my Facebook and Twitter profile pic. You can see the kids have had unlimited access to pads of post-its as well and have had a grand time every week trying to make anything and everything they can think of.

I’ll have to go and take some photos of the ones I’m missing. Stay tuned!

SOMO Kids Camp Resource Page

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Thanks everyone for a wonderful week! It was my pleasure to step WAY out of my comfort zone (Hometown Children’s Pastoring) and wear a “Kids Evangelist” cap for a while. I saw God do amazing things with your kids! Forever kind of stuff!

Below are a few resources that I used in the services this week. I hope you will find them helpful.

The game songs were all written by Parry Gripp on YouTube. You can download my countdowns below. Baby Monkey, Dog With A Box On His Head, Boogie Hedgehog, Lalalala Wee (Turtle)

Praise & Worship Songs:

The other songs are available from Hillsong Kids, Group Publishing.

Downloads: The videos and resources that I used for camp can be downloaded! I created the videos for most of the songs myself using a video editing program.

Podcast:

UPDATE – Camp Notes

By request: Below are the Victory Verses, Main Points and Big Deals from each night of camp. Each night’s topic goes back to what you need to become a “Camp Champ” aka a champion in your walk with Christ.

Night 1 – You Need Jesus

  • Main Point: Jesus is the way to God. He’s the truth about God. He’s the only way to eternal life beyond and a joyous life now.
  • Victory Verse: John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life… “Without me, no one can go to the Father.
  • Big Deal: Separated from God because of sin but Jesus can bring me back again.

Night 2 – You Need Power

  • Main Point: Do you have the power of the Holy Spirit living in and around you? Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Do those describe you?
  • Victory Verse: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses… Acts 1:8
  • Big Deal: I need the Power and the Fruit of the Holy Spirit! Cause people wanna see it before they hear it!

Night 3 – You Need To Represent Your Team (Are you Super-Normal?)

  • Main Point: The world’s normal isn’t our normal. We are to live as sacrifices to God… that’s the norm for Christians.
  • Victory Verse: Offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God. Romans 12:1
  • Big Deal: I’m set apart I’m on God’s Team that’s what Super-Normal means!

Night 4 – You Need A Goal

  • Main Point: What is God calling you to do? Whatever it is, you can’t reach it without Him and Us. A God sized dream is bigger than you can ever ask for, think of or do on your own.
  • Victory Verse: I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
  • Big Deal: I may not know what He wants me to do but it’s going to require both Him and You!

Newspaper Box Podium – (Not) Coming Soon

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**UPDATE** Due to a hard drive crash I no longer have the drawings mentioned in this article. I apologize.

A few years back I had an idea for a custom podium that would match my city theme. I always thought the traditional newspaper box would work well and so I built one and used it for years. I wanted to share my design in the hopes that others would be able to build it and enjoy it as much as I did so I’m in the process of creating a model and measured drawings in Google Sketchup.

Coming soon!

Till then, enjoy a few photos (after the jump) and let me know what you think. Continue reading →

Movies Like Malkoff: Days 4-12

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I’m still doing this thing… but my spare time is even less plentiful than I expected. I watch what I can when I can. Here’s where we stand as of 5/2/2012.

  • Being John Malkovich – I was so intrigued by the premise of this movie. I’m a John Malkovich fan… but I turned it off less than halfway through. Once the cute/zany stuff was over and the weird “I only like you through him” stuff started… I had to go watch High School Musical to undo the mental damage. That being said… the puppeteering segments, though really strange, were amazing. I thought at times that they were using people in costume and filming it to make them look miniature. Then I found this old webpage of an interview with the puppeteer.
  • Reservoir Dogs – Didn’t watch this. I saw it long ago and don’t need to see it again. Replaced with The Gumby Movie which I watched with the kids. Surprisingly no one cut off any claymation ears.
  • Swingers – Delete the first hour of this movie and it would be great!
  • Trainspotting – Didn’t watch. Again, saw it a long time ago and just too dark for my taste. Replaced with Girl, Interrupted… which I didn’t notice was already on the list, just further down.
  • Clerks – Again. Didn’t watch again. Replaced with The Muppet Movie on DVD with the kids. It’s awesome.
  • Girl, Interrupted – I don’t remember enough about this movie to do a decent review. Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder were in it. Strange because I think of one as an 80’s icon and the other as a late 90’s icon. In 1999 two world collided.
When Mark finished Girl, Interrupted he was only three more movies away from finishing his 2nd day. I’m creeping up on day 13 here.

Movies Like Malkoff: Day 4

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Busy day. Watched:

  • Marathon Man – Was like a bad James Bond movie… except without James Bond. Cover your eyes… through the whole thing. When you hear Dustin Hoffman screaming imagine a modern remake.
  • Being John Malkovich – Small office. Random, random, random, random. Only halfway through. If things don’t get cool I’m going to watch something with Big Bird in it. How do you make Cameron Diaz look like a dog????

Movies Like Malkoff: Day 3

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Today was Sunday. Sunday’s a work day for me. I don’t get home till after 1pm. Then it’s lunch, putting the kids down for a nap… and even I get a nap. Not wanting to disturb my normal routine, I watched movies when I could.

Today I watched:

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
  • Harold and Maude
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was a great movie. Again… no real plot. Seems to be the thing to do in the early 70’s. It really got me thinking… have movies gotten to formulated? I would say yes. The best part was seeing a lot of actors who went on to do a lot of great stuff. Dr. Emmit Brown never looked better. That nurse-lady Mrs. Cratchet, she needed to be hit in the head with a shovel or something. Had the movie been made
Harold and Maude: Dude makes a hearse out of a Jaguar. A man with one arm rigs his stump sleeve to salute. Harold breaks the third wall in a great scene. He scares away a treo of female suitors with faked suicide attempts. Hilarious.
Okay. I’ll admit something. I wrote all that about halfway in. Apparently Harold who is very young and Maude who is very old do the nasty. Which is nasty. Not that and 80 year old shouldn’t have a chance at love… it’s just obvious that neither of these characters are doing very well and what should have been a healthy relationship with boundaries becomes a twisted and confused relationship. Just read that this is supposed to be a dark-comedy. Not my favorite genre. But I get it. The product of WWII and the product of Vietnam. One driven to live life by war, the other feels meaningless because of it. Put these two together as concepts and a lesson can be learned. But I’m not that deep. To me it was a Frodo-looking spoiled rich boy trying to make babies with a suicidal, law-breaking old lady. Thank God that movie is over.
How am I doing compared to Mark Malkoff? Well, he’s watched another 7 movies today for a total  of 60. By his third day he’d seen 25 films. I’ve seen 7 total.

Weight Loss Update: Week 3

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I’m starting to get just a little sloppy here and there. If I grab a piece of candy from my kid’s Easter basket I don’t count it. I’m not measuring out my mayonnaise  when I make a sandwich. Do letting little things slide like that matter? They do if I start letting bigger things slide.

Example of letting little things slide.

With Weight Watchers you can literally eat whatever you want… so that’s not the issue… but you’re supposed to track everything. When I have a “hungry night” and I eat a little more than just dinner… I’ll count that, no problem. It’s the little stuff that I’m not counting… and I need to start… because those things have a way of adding up. And I’d hate to be sacrificing so much during the week only to have a tiny Reese’s Cup mess me up.

Mess you up? I'll swallow your soul!

Still though I’m doing great. This week I’m down 1.8 pounds… 3.8 pounds total.

 

Movies Like Malkoff: Day 2

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I’ve decided to tall this stunt “Movies Like Malkoff” since I’m just sortakinda doing what he’s doing.

Today I was able to watch:

  • The second-half of Bonnie and Clyde
  • Shutter Island (in place of  A Clockwork Orange)
  • Paper Moon

Bonnie and Clyde was a letdown. I’m sure in it’s day it was hot stuff but the movie just doesn’t hold up today. The storytelling is seemingly random and disjointed. I couldn’t tell if they were trying to be historically accurate or not. It wasn’t a drama or action or a love story.  I really wanted it to be one of those… but I couldn’t pin it down. Every character other than Warren Beatty annoyed me to death. I remember seeing a different version back in High School that had a long, drawn-out and more emotionally stirring finale where Bonnie and Clyde were gunned down in their car. This one just riddled them with bullets and done.

Shutter Island is a lot darker than I remember. I had seen it before on Netflix but I wasn’t half paying attention. It’s got a great twist that makes all of the weirdness make sense. So darker… but so much better than I recall. Like a good novel that pays off in the last few pages. Not a movie I would suggest to just anyone… or any one at all for that matter. Again, pretty dark subject matter. Children are dead in it.

Paper Moon is in black and white… but filmed in 1973. I wonder how many films were done in black and white around the year I was born? It’s pretty hilarious. A little girl’s mom dies and a man who may be her father is tasked with bringing her to family in Missouri. The man is a swindler, the girl is street-wise so the comedy is natural and constant. Couldn’t help but think of “Better Off Dead” with the paperboy asking for his 2 dollars during the scene in the diner. “I want my 200 dollars!!!” Awesome. I found myself laughing out loud several times… and that doesn’t happen except when I’m watching Community. The little girl is amazing. They don’t make child actors like that anymore… and she actually turned into a very attractive woman. Even if you hate this movie… at least watch till you hear “Hurry up Doctor. This little baby’s gotta go winkie-tinkie”. I loved seeing Higgins (John Hillerman) from Magnum P.I. and a young Randy Quaid.

As with all of these old movies… I have a hard time finding any sort of plot. Wonder why that is.

So on day two I’m 5 movies in. Mark Malkoff had already watched 17 movies by the end of two days. I’m 12 films behind right now. Hilarious.

Can I Watch 250 Movies Like Mark Malkoff?

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Mark Malkoff is a comedian and film maker out of New York. He’s done some super-creative work since I had the fortune to discover him. He’s gotten 6-pack abs in 30 days. He’s lived five days in his bathroom, with no internet. He’s had New Yorkers carry him across town. He’s lived at Ikea. He stopped by my hometown of St. Mary’s, Georgia to accept the key to the city. And one of my favorite gags: Celebrity Sleepovers where he literally slept over at as many celebrity homes as he could. Funny (and creative) stuff.

Right now he’s in the midst of filming a whole new project where he’s trying to watch over 400 hours of Netflix. That’s 250 full-length movies, credits included, on Netflix Instant in a month’s time. As of this post’s writing he has just completed day 5. Five 15+ hour days just watching movies. Sounds like a dream… but I’m sure it got old say around day 1, 3rd movie.

It got me thinking. Mark does this for a living. It’s his job to create, film and release wild and creative comedy stunts… so he can take 400 hours out of a month and spend it on a marathon movie stunt. But how about me? How long would it take a father of two, with a full-time (plus) job, and several podcasts, who could only use his free time to do the same thing? I’m going to find out.

I’ll be watching (mostly) the same films as Mark is, starting with day one. I actually started this morning. Mark is committing 15 to 16 hours every day to his project. I can only use the time I have to myself… which is most Fridays and evenings after 9:00pm. There are a few films that Mark has on his list that I’ve already seen so I will be replacing them with movies of similar length. On May 3rd I’ll be at the Marvel Marathon leading up to the Avengers movie. I’ll be counting them as replacement films as well. It’s going to be fun to see how long this takes me.

Today I watched:

  • The Graduate
  • Chinatown
  • and almost half of Bonnie and Clyde
So that’s day one. By compairson Mark watched all of the following on his first day.
  1. The Graduate
  2. Chinatown
  3. Bonnie and Clyde
  4. A Clockwork Orange
  5. Paper Moon
  6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  7. Harold and Maude
  8. Marathon Man

So far the movies are wonderful… and disturbing. I had never seen The Graduate or Chinatown. I was amazing at how current they looked. Visually they could have been filmed this year. Where they showed their age was in the cinematography and storytelling. Apparently The Graduate is referred to as a comedy-drama… a genre I was not aware existed until today. I showed my age by recognizing the church scene at the end from what I think is a Wayne’s World sequel rather than the other way around as Wayne’s World had parodied The Graduate.

Both the Graduate and Chinatown dealt with some pretty heavy subject matter. Stuff filmmakers don’t mess with much these days. We like our movies light hearted and with a happy ending. But I’ll tell you, Chinatown got me angry. As was intended I’m sure. So much left undone. So much happened wrong… but it was so real in that way.

Bonnie and Clyde has me wondering how historically accurate it is. The way the two met and just jumped into a life of crime together seems like a movie making shortcut… unless it really happened that way. Though I’m almost halfway through, this seems like someone went back in time and made Natural Born Killers. Which I’m sure is actually a remake of Bonnie and Clyde… or at least heavily influenced by it.

After Bonnie and Clyde tomorrow I’ll be replacing A Clockwork Orange (seen it long ago and it just wasn’t my thing at all… can’t stand milk) with Shutter Island which is actually 3 minutes longer… but who cares.